Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Dear friends,visitors and comic lovers from all over the world,today on 4th Feb. Comic World completes 2nd year of its existence.Thanks all of you for your love and association with Comic World during this period.

Whole two years have been passed after when a passionate comic lover jumps into a unknown and new field of blogging with a motive in mind to share,discuss,revive and relive the 'lost world' of childhood through the comics.The comics which forms the integral part of his childhood sweet memories.

What made me to form a comic blog has been already mentioned few times before,still if new visitors wish to read the reason behind it they can read it from here.In these two years much has been changed,with the advent of numerous contributors the quota of 803 Indrajal comics is going to be depleted soon and all Indrajal comics will be available online,which is satisfying and encouraging as after that the platform for discussion on comics will be more solid and wide.Mere comic posting was not my only preference,rather healthy,worthy and thick comic discussions do attract me more,thats why my posting frequency was not very quick as i use to post only when i do have something to tell/discuss over that particular comic/post.When this blog was started i was having only odd 75+ Indrajal comics along with few other old comic such as Manoj Chitra Katha,Superman etc,but within these 2 years i was able to build up a sizeable collection which currently comprises of Indrajals,Amar Chitra Katha,Tinkles,Manoj Chitra Katha,Madhumuskans,Deewanas,Tulsi Comics,Star comics,Frews,Gold keys and many other comics.In my house comics are lying everywere...in the book shelf purchased specially for comics,over the book shelf,stuffed in couple of bags as well as on my computer table also.For me the beginning of 2009 has been proved quite productive regarding comics,as within January itself i got lots of comics consisting of many of my missing Indrajals as well as other comics such as Amar Chitra Kathas and other lesser known comics,which i took intentionally for the purpose of gathering information for Anupam's comic encyclopedia project.Well,for this special anniversary post its kept in mind to satisfy the likes of the majority of comic lovers,and for that a variety of comics are being presented.Starting with our favorite Indrajal comics,this particular issue "The Valley Of Living Dead" (Vol.20.No.49) is actually the reprint version of Indrajal No.19,"Moogoo's Dolls",which itself is the comic version of Sunday strip No.21 "The Haunted Castle" (12-09-1948 to 13-02-1949).Ardent Phantom enthusiast can easily find out that this strip actually is the combined work of two illustrator,namely Moore and MCcoy.The first two pages were illustrated by Moore whereas rest strip was taken up by MCcoy.

As you all know about the quality and popularity of Manoj Chitra Kathas,specially those very early MCK which were in big page format.So here are the few covers of those very early Manoj Chitra Kathas,infact the comic "Aalha-Udal" is from the very first, ever published, set of MCK.Any takers of these Manoj Chitra Kathas.....!!! If yes then let me know and these will be right here on your PC monitors.

Anupam,few days back i came across with these comics,about which i did never hear before.Do you require the information regarding these comics?If yes,kindly let me know.

....and yes Anupam here is your requested comic.This is the first comic of 'Shuja' series,i remember reading a few more of them.This one is quite simple with a plain story,illustrations are by Govind Brahmania but nobody is credited as its writer.If anyone can throw some light on details of this comic,pls share with us the information.

Nice choices of comics for this special occasion. I’d like to see all MCK, especially Aalha-Udal & Tamerlan (other names: Timur or Timour Lang or Timour the Lame one). In the Chagatai language, Timur means "iron". It is a derivation of the Sanskrit word cimara ("iron").

Congrats on your 2nd anniversary,CW!It is indeed a very big post.Thanks for the colourful MCK covers too.Not too many people possess these gems today(apart from Indrajals).I loved those initially but could not quite go through bec of language.

KK: Yes,you are indeed the first.Congrats!Primary comic sources are old book shops and swap deals with friends.Nagraj comics,or better to say Raj comics are becoming technically brilliant by time but the stories not being directly proportional.I also use to read Raj comics at its initial stage but later on when repeatability began to crept in the stories my interest in them was lost.

You are lucky to have gathered so many comics in the last months, I too am hunting but so many publishers never sent there comics to this place, so its hard to find their comics here.

Anyway about that Durga comics, yes I have 4 of them. I have seen the very first set when they started publishing, a great variety in cover attracted me, but the inner pages were poor and I never intended to read the second or following sets...

And about those GIANT manoj cover, I have just 8 of the GIANT MCKS, and they were great, I just can't wait to have the collection of them,

anyway I am building a list of MCK published, Its a request to all the readers, kindly send me the list of MCKs they have with the serial No., title and the characters, so that I can complete the list of MCKs pulished. Hope you all will help

Congratulations on your second anniversary dude. Trust me your blog has been one of the most important blogs I am using for my research on my Documentary project Chitrakathaa. So many comics and such great posts, I am speechless...please forward me your email address so that we can get in touch with you and we can share more info over the mails which will be really helpful for me while compiling data for my Documentary...A huge round of applause foe Shooja & Deewana post, as I discussed a lot on these titles with Aabid Surti ji & Jagdeesh ji respectively and was looking for good scans...Thanks a ton buddy

I am planning to start a Google Group called Chitrakathaa where we all Indian Comic Book Lovers can meet and discuss things. I would like to have everybody's suggestions and tips for my Documentary.Besides I am also making a questionnaire for the comic book creators where all the fans can add their questions below the creator's name and we will try to cover all these questions in our detailed interviews for the documentary, this way we all will get to ask the questions we always wanted to ask the creators. Please join the group and ask other guys to join it too...

Buddy I forget to wish you on the 2nd anniversary of your GREAT BLOG.Congratulations. Shuja Comics were written by Mr. Abid Surti of Dabbuji fame (or should I say Bahadur fame). He also created Inspector Azad. Last time I recommended to for Children's Digest. I am taking my recommendation back. One comic of that magazine of Dec. 2008 issue kindles my hopes but Jan. 2009 extinguish them. Oh you asked me where I have been. Busy with life buddy and in the spare time searching old comics. Got some small size Madhu Muskan in the meantime. (Raj Comics size and not the hopeless Digest size). Please tell me whether Jagdish Bharti of Popat-Chopat fame created any comic for Diwana.

Anupam: Welcome Anupam.Well,comic hunt and specially of defunct old comics is a matter of luck mostly.During the 2nd half of last year it was literally a comic-drought for me,but fortunately with the advent of the current year i came across with several opportunities to procure these comics and i grabbed them with teeth.So you never know when comic-luck strikes you,one should just keep on searching.Those very early Manoj Chitra Katha issues are really a treat to hold,cover art by C.M.Vitankar and gripping stories were the main masala ingredients.I am having quite a few of those early issues,now looking for those very few GIANT size published MCK.Do you remember those super giant size MCKs?I will be happy to provide any support/help for your project which i can.

TF: Thanks for the wishes as well as praiseworthy kind words.I am having great expectations with your project and will happy to impart any sort of support of which i am capable of.Pls feel free to ask for any support.My mail id,comik.world@gmail@com,is itself displayed on blog,but anyway sending you a introductory mail soon.BTW,joined your group today :)

Silly Boy: Thanks Buddy.Well,i would love to hear from you about the comics,which you find recently.Thanks for Shuja's writer information.I don't think and remember that Jagdish drew any feature for Deewana as till today i never find any Jagdish drawn character in Deewana.Madhumuskan kept their big size format up to 700 or 800+ issues,after which they adopted small size format till the very end.

Dear CW, 2 years and what a record! keep it up! btw, pl. send me ur wanted list so i can see if i have any of it to complete my promise....it has been a long gap and i would like to complete my commitment.

Rafiq: Dear Rafiq,many thanks for your kind words.During recent past i was not able to register my presence on your wonderful blog,but recently i left my reaction on tinkle collector issue post,and now will be constantly in touch with you and your blog.

I love to read all of these Indrajal (in English), and I thank you for your efforts.

BUT, I strongly dislike the tags you (and some others) place in the scans here and there.

If one does not want to see its sharing stolen by others, stop sharing, but, please, do not add tags.

For me, the sharing process is a generous thing that wait for nothing in return; “the pleasure to make a gift”. I can’t think at a gift where I will ask to "This iPod is a gift from Emile” burned on the iPod (for example)… think that in a few days it will be Valentine’s day ;)

Anon: Dear friend personally i also don't like to scribe anything over a comic,for the same reason i never-ever scribbled a single line or my name or marked my stamp over any of my comic only because of the reason that i like to read/collect comic in its original natural form.Regarding theft of scans,naturally no body,specially a scanner/uploader,will approve/like it.I too don't like it but like certainly that all readers of that particular comic should be aware of the 'original' source of that very comic,hence the tags are placed purposely here and there in the scans but on the same line i take care to place tags on such spaces where they don't disturb/interfere in the way of reading.Sorry if they interfered with your reading,will take more care to isolate them as much as possible from main frames of comic.

Dear C/WLast while going through my collection of inderjal comics I wondered who is the best cover artist of Inderjal Comics. Works of two artits i.e. Shehab and Barhamani(I beg your pardon if I am spelling his name wrongly but I mean the illustrator of Bahadur) was before me and I have seen the work of C.M. Vitankar on net. My vote goes to Shehab. What is your opinion. You can update the question on your blog for knowing the opinion of others as well. The first few comics of Nagraj had two covers. The original covers were designed by 'Sanjay Astputre' who had also illustrated the comics. Later on when Raj Comics re-released the comics they introduced a new cover designed by Patrap Mullick. I consider him one of the best cover designer of Indian comics along-with Pardeep Sathe, Ram Vaikar and C.M. Vitankar. Though Shehab designed Inderjal covers in the middle period but other than this I have not found cover of any comic designed by him other than his own comics of Chhotu Lambu. My wife was ill last week and I had to spend a lot of time in the hospital for attending her. I utilized the time for collecting facts about comics and one interesting anecdote. Don't have time but send you in due course. Can you please mail me the scans of Diwana.

S.B.: Indrajal comic covers were manly designed by B.Govind or Govind Brahamania (Illustraor of Bahadur),Shehab,P.G.Bandodkar and Shekhar.B.Govind did a majority of covers,Shehab for the first time designed cover of issue no.349 of Indrajal comics,though very talented,Shehab was basically a caricature/comic illustrator and hence his work inflected a funny comic look in his covers.Many of times his cover failed to impart the seriousness and undercurrent which is normally associated with Phantom stories and hence giving cover Phantom a funny look.For me B.Govind was certainly the best Phantom cover artist and specially his paint like covers of very early Indrajals are the real classic.For comics other than Indrajal,i.e.Manoj Chitra Katha,C.M.Vitankar was certainly the best among cover designers of MCK.His painted cover designs are the classics,on can easily witness his brilliance in the very early MCKs.Raam Waeerkar,Pratap Mullick are the other talented cover artists/illustrators who are experts both at cover designing as well as full comic illustrations.Since i am not in very close touch with Raj Comics hence its inappropriate for me to comment about its cover artists.

Hi ... I m quite new to ur blogs... But I love the collection u hv... especially the new ones frm MCK... namely Alha-Udal and Teimur-Lang... Actually i had these two stories as part of a digest comic book... along with another story of Gaura-Badal...But time and my kid brother ate away the starting and end pages of the digest, leaving only the gaura-badal story intact... I would love to read the above two stories again.. plz....post them...

Samuncle: Welcome on CW.ts nice to find another MCK lover.Well,currently i am posting MCKS on my blog as well in a community too,which is for MCKs only.You can find may MCKs from that community.Here is its address:http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=57072854

Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart to have brought all the memories of my childhood back to me.those times of 80s and 90s.I was so so surprised to go through you blogspot that you have almost all characters, all comics up on you webpage.IT is pretty comprehensive and detailed.You have done an awesome research and collection job.I now stay in manchester and I know these comics will never be available in anyway but your attempt to scan them and put them has brought all memories back.Great great work.Lastly,I was in class 5 or 6 when i read VICHITRA ANGHOOTHI....I was so surprised to have a cover page of it on your webpage.This shows your great love and affinity towards you marvellous interest about comics...Great jobs once again.